A tormented Civil War veteran, Captain Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise), is hired by the Emperor of Japan in the 1870s to train the country's army in the art of modern warfare in filmmaker Edward Zwick's epic tale of the birth of modern Japan. The 2003 film received Oscar nominations for Best Art Direction, Costume Design, Sound Mixing, and Ken Watanabe's portrayal of Katsumoto, a samurail warrior who leads a rebellion against the emperor's embrace of Western ways. This two-disc Special Edition also contains deleted scenes and commentary from Zwick, a conversation with Zwick and Cruise, a documentary on samurai, footage from the Japanese premieres, and featurettes on the film's production and costume design and samurai weaponry.